Money is choking our democracy to death. Our elections are bought out from under us and our public officials are doing the bidding of mercenaries. So powerful is the hold of wealth on politics that we cannot say America is working for all Americans. The majority may support such broad social goals as affordable medical coverage for all, decent wages for working people, safe working conditions, a secure retirement, and clean air and water, but there is no government "of, by, and for the people" to deliver on those aspirations.

Our system of privately financed campaigns has shut regular people out of any meaningful participation in democracy. Less than one-half of one percent of all Americans made a political contribution of $200 or more to a federal candidate in 2004. When the average cost of winning a seat in the House of Representatives has topped $1 million, we can no longer refer to that chamber as "The People's House." Congress belongs to the highest bidder.

At the same time that the cost of getting elected is exploding beyond the reach of ordinary people, the business of influencing our elected representatives has become a growth industry. Since President Bush was elected the number of registered lobbyists in Washington has more than doubled. That's 16,342 lobbyists in 2000 and 34,785 last year: 65 lobbyists for every member of Congress. The total spent per month by special interests wining, dining, and seducing federal officials is now nearly $200 million. Per month.................

Re: A Culture of Corruption-Let's Save Our Democracy by Getting Money Out of Politics

I've got two points to make in response to this article.

The first is the rather obvious but commonly misunderstood fact that the United States is a Republic, not a democracy. This is enshrined in the Constitution, Article 4, section 4 : The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,(...) The difference is subtle, but crucial. The Founders were explicit that our country was decidedly NOT a democracy, citing its many failures throughout history. (read the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers. Also see http://www.trimonline.org/website/deceived.htm

The second point is that Bill Moyers is a big-time liberal/commie/"progressive", or whatever they call themselves these days. He also is/was a member of the CFR , which places him firmly in the new world order camp. He's right about money corrupting politics, though I fear his solution would be to outlaw private contributions, and use public funds to finance candidates. How would you like some of your tax dollars to go to the pro-abortion candidate? to the affirmative action or socialist candidate? You don't? Well, you must be undemocratic! A democracy only lasts until people discover they can vote themselves largesse from the public funds. It is my belief that it is the overabundance of "democracy" that has resulted in our downward slide into ochlocracy (Mob rule -- see Revilo Oliver )